Accounts Receivable Turnover Ratio Formula, Definition, Example

Perhaps your company had $2,500,000 in net credit sales for the year, with average accounts receivable of $500,000. To calculate your accounts receivable turnover ratio, you would divide your net credit sales, $2,500,000, by the average accounts receivable, $500,000, and get four. Now we can use the Maria’s receivable turnover ratio to calculate its average collection period ratio which would reveal the average number of days the company takes to collect a credit sale. We can do so by dividing the number of days in a year by the receivables turnover ratio. A restrictive credit policy is not a good idea when product margins are high, since it can result in the loss of a substantial amount of profit. In this case, it would be better to loosen the credit policy in order to increase sales to lower-quality customers, since the incremental amount of profit gained will exceed the incremental gain in bad debts. Making sure your company collects the money it is owed is beneficial for both internal and external financial engagements.

Once you have your net credit sales, the second part of the accounts receivable turnover ratio formula requires your average accounts receivable. The accounts receivable turnover ratio is an accounting calculation used to measure how effectively your business uses customer credit and collects payments on the resulting debt. Since the receivables turnover ratio measures a business’ ability to efficiently collect itsreceivables, it only makes sense that a higher ratio would be more favorable. Higher ratios mean that companies are collecting their receivables more frequently throughout the year. For instance, a ratio of 2 means that the company collected its average receivables twice during the year. In other words, this company is collecting is money from customers every six months. A high turnover ratio indicates a combination of a conservative credit policy and an aggressive collections department, as well as a number of high-quality customers.

Example of Receivables Turnover Ratio

You receive payment for debts, which increases your cash flowand allows you to pay your business’s debts, like payroll, for example, more quickly. Giving your customers the flexibility to pay their invoices through various channels makes it easier for you to collect payments quicker. An automated, fully-branded payment system provides a convenient and seamless experience for your customers. Customers may become upset, or you may lose the opportunity to work with customers who may have lower credit limits. This post will break down the receivable turnover ratio, calculate it, the difference between a high and low ratio and more.

If a company generates a sale to a client, it could extend terms of 30 or 60 days, meaning the client has 30 to 60 days to pay for the product. The ability to collect on these debts depends on a number of factors, including financial and economic conditions and, more importantly, the client.

What Is the Receivables Turnover Ratio Formula?

She has owned Check Yourself, a bookkeeping and payroll service that specializes in small business, for over twenty years. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from UCLA and has served on the Board of the National Association of Women Business Owners. She also regularly writes https://simple-accounting.org/ about travel, food, and books for various lifestyle publications. The goal is to maintain a low DSO number because a low DSO reflects quicker cash collection. She has owned a bookkeeping and payroll service that specializes in small business, for over twenty years.

A properly trained CFO, however, has the answers to this and many other questions. In this guide, therefore, we’ll break down the accounts receivable turnover ratio, discussing what it is, how to calculate it, and what it can mean for your business. Note any fluctuations or spikes in the data and how those changes correlate with improvements to your A/R processes. To get further insight into your finances, examine how many days it takes to collect receivables by dividing your turnover ratio by 365. If your business is cyclical, you may have a skewed ratio by the beginning and end of your average AR. You’ll want to compare it to your accounts receivable aging report to see if your receivables turnover ratio is accurate. A high turnover metric may indicate that the management is adopting an excessively conservative credit policy by which it allows credit sales to only highly creditworthy customers, driving away others to competitors.

Accounts Receivable Turnover Ratio Explained

The accounts receivable turnover ratio is an accounting measure used to quantify how efficiently a company is in collecting receivables from its clients. Businesses have various efficiency ratios that they track to ensure they are operating at or near optimum potential. In particular, tracking the accounts receivable Receivables Turnover Ratio – Definition turnover ratio ensures that the business remains viable. The trend of the ratio over time informs stakeholders concerning the financial health of the business. Accounts receivables (A/R) are an ongoing process of improvement, and like all improvements, companies need metrics to monitor their progress.

• To fill in the blanks, take your net value of credit sales in a given time period and divide by the average accounts receivable during that same period.
• Instead of net credit sales, they use the total sales value as numerator of the formula.
• Therefore, a low or declining accounts receivable turnover ratio is considered detrimental to a company.
• If your company’s cash flow cycle isn’t strong, you may want to review your AR ratio.
• Once you’ve used the accounts receivable turnover ratio formula to find your rate, you can identify issues in your business’s credit practices and help improve cash flow.

All customers are billed a month in advance of service delivery, thereby preventing any customer from receiving services without paying the bill. In other words, its accounts receivables are better protected as service can be disconnected before further credit is extended to the customer. The accounts payable turnover ratio is a short-term liquidity measure used to quantify the rate at which a company pays off its suppliers.

Accounting Topics

Your company’s creditworthiness appears firmer, which may help you to obtain funding or loans quicker. The accounts receivable turnover ratio shows you the number of times per year your business collects its average accounts receivable. It helps you evaluate your company’s ability to issue a credit to your customers and collect monies from them promptly. A high accounts receivable turnover ratio indicates that your business is more efficient at collecting from your customers. The accounts receivable turnover ratio is an important efficiency metric used by management and investors to understand how many times a business converts its receivables to cash over a period of time.